ABSTRACT
The Bolivian and Guatemalan revolutionary struggles of the early 1950s foreshadowed a more significant revolution, which occurred on the island of Cuba in 1959. The Latin American left enthusiastically embraced the Cuban Revolution, and leaders across the region vowed to imitate the tactics and rhetoric of the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro Ruz. In 1901, the United States Congress passed the Platt Amendment, which dictated the terms of Cuban independence; the amendment allowed the United States to intervene militarily and politically in Cuban affairs and insisted that Cuban treaties with other sovereign nations meet the approval of Washington. In addition to the subjugation of Cuban sovereignty with the passing of the Platt Amendment, world price fluctuations of sugar dramatically affected Cuba. A young, charismatic, upper-middle-class student named Fidel Castro pointed out the contradictory nature of Cuban history, and went so far as to suggest that the island had, in fact, never enjoyed legitimate “independence.”.
